Topics - Adomnae

The Guardians forums move pretty fast. Gnomes, Canadians, Cooking, and wha!!tever else you can think of -- and gaming, of course -- all contribute to things flying around the "new" lists like Martini makes alts. Every so often we like to simmer down a little reduction for your gastrognomic pleasure:

...(some other stuff is here, like "lesser" awards. Go check it out again.)... Then:

The highest honor a Guardian can receive, it is awarded to those extraordinary individuals whom personify the values and traits that the Guardians hold most dear, and live the Code through their every action. This award should be reserved for those Guardians who, without question, make TG the guild that it is.

In fact, Justin Beiber was eight years old when this guild was formed, yet the Crimson Laurel had only been awarded once during his rise to the ripe old age of eighteen.

May 2012 saw mASSter of the awards process (and some other stuff too I think), Torynn, hand out the Crimson Laurel to Mikhal LastinandDrenarb. But wait, there's more! Knowing that Torynn isn't the type to send himself flowers, guild leader Rico VanZant pulled a fast one on the awards mASSter and awarded Torynn with the Crimson Laurel as well.

So congratulations again to Mik, Dren, and Torynn on joining Uncle as recipients of this highest of awards.

Server transfers are available, and our Republic Division's home of Jung Ma is a destination server. It doesn't yet look like transfers to or from TG Sith Division's home of Ternetatek are available. Here's a post on Reddit that (may) be kept current as transfer rounds progress.Update: Terentatek players can now transfer to Prophecy of the Five. Thanks radmanelite!

R2Dew2. Count Dewku. Yodew. Lots of names for a guy who hasn't changed his avatar since this poster has been a Guardian. Considering that Drenarb seems to be everywhere, we figured that the X-Chef had some splainin' to dew.

So turn off your cell phones, dim the lights, grab a soda (any kind will dew, they're all the same), and ingest An interview with: Drenarb.

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You're the leader of the SWTOR Republic division. SWTOR is obviously a current success, but what would you do differently if you had to do it over again? What would you change if you were in charge of BioWare? EA?

More cookies? In all seriousness, though, knowing what we know about the Legacy system now, I would have moved to have both divisions on the same server or argued harder for us to stick to one division at the onset. I know many people really wanted to play the Sith side of the game, probably most of us at some point or another, so we eventually would have gotten there. Many people would have been disappointed, but I think overall it may have been a smarter choice had we known about the ins and outs of the Legacy System.

If I had been in a decision making position at BioWare/EA I would at the very least have dropped hints about the Legacy System to at least let people know, “Hey, you’re going to want to have all your characters on one server! Trust us!” At one point, I think they may have said that, but decisions in the guild had already been made and the rest is history. Overall, though, I’m very pleased with how the division is doing. There’s room for growth, as with everything, and I look forward to what the coming months have in store for our Republic division of TOR.

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It must be rough, all this fame and responsibility. I imagine that sometimes you just want to sit back and kick it with the little people, just another Guardian enjoying the plunder without the shackles of leadership. Pick a Guardian to trade places with, and why.

There’s fame and fortune with this job? When was I supposed to be informed of this?! I’ve yet to get my check!Let’s see…. Who would I trade places with…. Hmmm…. That’s tough, because I kind of like being me. Oh, I would probably pick several people just because it’s too hard to pick just one. I’d be Duck for a day, because he’s really chill and easy going. I’d pick Barnaby for a day so I could claim to go AFK for five minutes, and then come back thirty minutes later. I’d be Mas and Eagle both for a day, so I could rock an awesome accent. There are many more, but we might be here for a while.

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Care to explain "X-Chef"?

The “X-Chef” stems from Star Wars: Galaxies where I was the guild chef. My characters have always been some form of the name Drenarb Xchiline. Since I was a Master Chef in SWG and my chosen last name began with “X”, I slapped on the “X” to the “Chef” and became the “X-Chef”. It was kind of funny when I did that, because about half the guild thought I was doing away with the Chef profession entirely and I was the only Master Chef in The Guardians.

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PvE, PvP, or a balance -- what's your preference? Which Guardian would you turn into a mob on farm status? Which Guardian do you wish had red over their head so you could lead the way to their medical center?

I really like playing both PvE and PvP. I’m not one to just go all in for one area of a game. I like to try out all aspects of something and it also helps break the monotony of playing one side of the game for me if I mix it up. I’d probably put Mysteeria on farm status for what she did to that poor “Wolf” mob on Hoth. As for a red = dead Guardian I’d choose Airic, just because hey, it’s Airic!

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What other divisions of The Guardians have you been involved in? Which division would you label "the glory days" (so far)?

I’ve been involved with the Star Wars: Galaxies, Age of Conan, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online and now obviously The Old Republic. I served as a PvP officer in SWG and a crafting officer in Age of Conan. I would definitely say that the glory days had to be those in SWG. Not knocking what we have now by any means, but during that time everything was still fresh, we hadn’t had any “turmoil” in our ranks: it was just us college guys and gals for the most part having fun. Now most of us that are still here from those days are grown up and have these gross things called “responsibilities”. We’ve definitely done a lot of growing over the past ten years; we’ve seen a lot of people come and go, but I’m excited to see what The Guardians will be doing ten years from now.

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What's your favourite fictional character, and why? Are you the type to watch a movie or read a book multiple times, or once and done?

Favorite fictional character? I really enjoy this one dude named “Drenarb Xchiline” that cooks great meals… Oh, okay, in all seriousness one of my favorite fictional characters is Boba Fett. While my favoritism for him has waned a little the past couple of years, I remember reading a short story about him in the “Tales from the Empire” collection of stories and was enamored by how he took down his prey. Besides him, though, I really enjoy Han Solo, Coran Horn and Wedge Antilles from the Star Wars Universe and Indiana Jones. I actually used to carry a bull whip around the house when I was younger because I thought Indy was so cool.

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I'm terribly sorry that I gave that boomer Duck a sooner opportunity to beak off about his state. The gauntlet has been thrown, so tear into Texas with everything you've got.

Well, I hate to do too much to the state of Texas after that oh-so-embarrassing sweep that the OKC Thunder gave the Mavericks a couple weeks ago, but I will say that the reason Oklahoma is so windy is that Texas both sucks AND blows.Oh, and Oklahoma owns the Red River. Just saying. It’s a big deal.But I know most people think that there isn’t much to do here in Oklahoma, but that simply isn’t true. I mean we have a whole lot of this and a whole lot of that to do.

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What beverage container should be made into C3PO?

Oh, C-3PO should definitely be made into a 24 oz. golden special edition Mountain Dew container while his counterpart remain as the 12 oz. can of the blessed substance.

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Tell us how you became a Guardian.

It was several months before SWG was to release. I was doing my normal internet searches for Star Wars related stuff and ran across this bit on the Star Wars forums about this new video game coming out. I HAD to check it out. So, I visited the Star Wars: Galaxies site and was immediately hooked. Knowing from my previous experience in Everquest that I would want someone to group with, I made a post on the SWG forums about being a smuggler looking to contract out to guilds to run guns and other goods in an RP fashion. I was almost immediately contacted by Niroe Stryker and he pointed me towards www.guardianhq.com. I applied, they accepted and here I am today.

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The Avengers have nothing on TG in the badassery department (but they probably have us on looks). Assign one of our own to Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.

Let’s see, Iron Man would definitely be Torynn, and it may actually become a reality after the video he posted a few days ago. I’d pick Booms to be Captain America…. because he’s Canadian, and that’s just too funny. Madmartigan is totally the Hulk and Thor would have to be Mikhal because if you’ve received the Crimson Laurel in TG, then you’ve obviously achieved demi-god status. Black Widow is totally Martini; I mean is there really any other option here? Her special ability has nothing to do with guns, but just talking you to death. Hawkeye would be Rico, because I can really imagine Rico wishing he could take out some of his “clients” with a nice clean bow and arrow shot some days.

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Write a haiku about Rico VanZant.

Rico:Man with the planGuardian Man

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Which Guardian do you think has the most ill-suited name? Suggest -- nay, demand -- a replacement. I already reported Madmartigan.

Definitely Hayt. I’ve had to reword sentences before so it wouldn’t sound like I was “hating” on anyone. His new name should be “Luvbunny”.

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You can have one thing from the Star Wars universe with you at all times here on Earth. What would it be? Oh, and it's pink.

My own personal pink Jedi. Unless their Force powers didn’t work here, and then I would have a Wookiee. Yes. A pink Wookiee would be epic.

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Battle station pics are getting too mainstream. Give us a screenshot of your Desktop as it is right now.

I'm a horrible impulse buyer, so it's truly a feat that I've help back this long.

I'm primarily a laptop user, as I travel a fair bit, and work out of multiple locations.

I usually end up with a Macbook Pro, but every now and then I branch out.

So, I downstreamed my MBP a few weeks ago to a user at work. In researching my replacement, I realised that everything was kind of stale, and the smart thing to do was wait for some refreshed models.

Now I'm getting a little giddy.

Asus G55/75 looks pretty sweet now that they're for reals. I can't go to much higher than that price point, unless it's a Mac (for whatever reason, the Mac Tax is acceptable, but a $2500 non-Mac would be frowned at. Meh.)

My gut says go for the Asus (I also run a couple *nix, etc., and the extra drive bays would be nice, and Asus components generally play nice), compared to a slimmer Mac that would limit me. With the Mac, I don't know why I'd want a nice GPU just to ask it to run at stupid high resolution. But I loves me Apple hardware design (haters gonna hate).

Though if Apple sticks with AMD graphics, that's a plus for me (shopping with my open source wallet).

Anyway, /rant off. Anybody want to point me at a Sager or MSI or something that I should be drooling over?

Oh, and I love typing on Lenovos. But they are really stale right now. And while I like games, it's also for work, it just happens to be that performance and gaming tend to coincide. And gaming in hotels.

There's nothing quite like the lead up to a new game; forums buzz, minds are roiled by choices to be made, encyclopedias animate.

Another thing that seems to happen during this phase is the mass putting on of rose colored glasses. Is Guild Wars 2 all that with sprinkles on top? Well, if you've preordered the game (kind of makes the glasses point moot, no?) you're about to find out! That's right - this weekend brings the first non-NDA beta weekend, and is open to all who pre-ordered. But you already knew that.

Head on over to character creation on our chosen beta weekend server, Isle of Janthir, and join your fellow Guardians starting this Friday at noon PDT (3:00pm EDT, 1:00pm Martini, aka CST).

If you can tear yourself away from the character creation screen this weekend, the TG Media team would like some tasty tidbits from your weekend to help us blow the NDA off in style. Screenshots, stories, comments, complaints, drool -- we want it all. PM your shareables to me -- I'll make ya famous. Bonus points for pics of Nautix's corpse.

Guardians! Duck, our very own web footed and swightly wierd Pthththtotoshop mathter was kind enough to sit down (we think) and answer a few pressing questions.

Without further rambling (you're not here to listen to me, after all), I'm happy to present to you: An interview with: Duck.

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If “everything's bigger in Texas”, what are you guys collectively overcompensating for?

This is a question I get quite a bit from you outsiders. There is no overcompensation, everything is bigger in Texas. Let me tell you why, this is the point in the universe where all things began. If you are religious, this is where your god, or all powerful being stood while creating the stars, planets, paper clips and so on. If you follow the more scientific belief, this is where the big bang happened. That is why Texans are friendlier, have larger than life personalities, and why we enjoy things on a larger scale than the rest of the world. Something grand took place here so anything small is unacceptable.

also oklahoma is how it is because: Religious PoV: that is where God sneezed.Scientific PoV: look up gross error

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What is your favourite novel?

Fiction: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It is a story I read when I was younger and I have yet to find another story that has stuck with me like it did. Non-Fiction: People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Not only did this book come out in the best year ever (1980) but it is an account of history taken from those that witnessed the history, the commoners. This is not a view from above but a view from the people actually fighting, working, slaving, and living.

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Which MMO from the past would you like to see remade/relaunched? What MMO would you pee yourself a little if it was to be made?

My first foray into role playing was pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons. I loved that game so much, and was very disappointed with the MMO of it. That is such a grand universe that I think if it were done by someone who was a fan of the pen and paper experience and of the lore that they could really make something fantastic. Plus I want it to be a sandbox. A close second is Galaxies, but I just want a graphical update and I want them to go back to what they had right before they pee'd in my sandbox.

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The Seven Dwarfs are Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Bashful, Sneezy, Sleepy. Assign a Guardian to each, plus come up with an eighth “wild card” Guardian and assign a name.

My favorite question!

Dopey: Pandamo. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming"Grumpy: Snissel, the only guy I know that can win a PvP tourney and still complain about how terrible his class is.Doc: Athyr. the guy is cool and sounds wise. Happy: Booms. Might be the alcohol, but he is always happy. Time for a shot.Bashful: Breagha.(Ceara) Thinking back on the cyclops thread and how long it took for an actual 2 eyed photo. Sneezy: Drenarb because he needs to be in here somewhere, and see my answer to how Oklahoma came to be above. (no he is not god, but the after effects) Sleepy: Torynn, since the move I rarely see him now so I am pretty sure he is always snoozing.Nutty: Adomnae, Wacky canadian who is overly fond of the canucks. Also the jokes that could follow such a name as 'Nutty" are unlimited.

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Why do you play a Gunslinger? Just because you're from Texas doesn't mean y'all need to be Walker reborn, ya know. If you were forced to pick another class, what would it be?

Oddly enough I am a rarity in Texas. I am more liberal in my beliefs and I am anti gun. Also anti Walker and Chuck Norris, especially anti Chuck Norris. I went with Gunslinger(Smuggler) though because Han was the 2nd coolest dude to roam that Galaxy far far away. The first being Jawa #3 from New Hope. So far I have a couple of other alts, and my next favorite over a 'slinger is my Guardian. Just jump into the mess of everything and slash away.

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Is that Howard the Duck in your sig?

Yes it is from one of the comics. The hand and the gun belong to Deadpool though, and the colors have been readjusted.

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Some kind of bad Mountain Dew incident puts you in charge of the Republic Division. Which Guardian do you immediately give a time out to (and why)?

First I would send a Mountain Dew gift basket to Drenarb with a card that read "Mwahahahaha I am the leader now" then I would have to place Cessation in time out because that guy has 75 alts that are all capped out at 50. I do believe he is plotting world domination and he must be stopped!

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Dora the Explorer Online MMO and an accompanying Guardian division – state the case for it. Sell it to me like your gaming career depends on it. Major bonus points if you give us a graphic as well.

Dudes, did you hear the news about the new MMO? Dora the freaking Explorah! Let me set this up for you. A girl playing with her monkey! Thats right, there is so much more, but that is all you needed to get pumped about it. There are talking maps, backpacks, and stars of all colors just waiting for you to catch them, catch them. Reach up and catch the stars! Then when you least expect it just as you are about to complete something a sneaky fox comes and tosses your items somewhere unreachable, like a bush or a tree. then you have to spend 20 more levels trying to climb that tree or push your way into the bush to get your goodies. Plus the bonus is it is new so everyone will be playing it for at least 2 months until something new comes along.

The graphic? You can't handle the graphic!

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Describe to us your ultimate meal.

My ultimate meal would begin a shot of tequila then a bottle of Corona (no limes)first course of appetizers: cream cheese and sausage stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon, beer battered fries, large chef salad with ranch dressing. Drink: another shot of Tequila and another CoronaSecond Course: large porterhouse steak, loaded baked potato, oven baked 5 cheese macaroni with bacon Third Course: Large slice of New York Style Cheesecake with Cherries and Pecans. 4th course finished up with another shot of tequila and a Corona.

Of course for the ultimate meal could only take place at my house in my front yard with all of my family and friends playing horseshoes, listening to my music, and everyone just laughing having a good time. This is also known as one of Duck's monthly cookouts which I usually have once a month until it gets cold again (October) Well minus the porterhouse, I can't afford that quite yet, ut I wish I could.

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Show us your battle station.

pretty basic.

The wallpaper on my monitor is a pic of my wife and I at our wedding (my wallpaper rotates through my image files) To the left you have my awesome snow globe which has Mad's (TV Show and magazine, not fellow Guardian) mascot, Alfred E. Neuman holding a broken umbrella and the caption reads "What--Me Worry?then next to that you have my Tardis that my mom brought back for me from London. On the other side of my monitor you have my pen and pencil cup. That wooden figure is Paizan my posable model and then of course my sketch pad. You can also see from the top of my desk that I was that guy in school who carved and drew pictures on top of the desks, and yes I need to dust.

I think we are starting to find out how gear heads felt when cars became mainstream and/or commoditized (sp?). One of the things that makes me no longer love Apple is the move from computing to interfacing, for lack of a better term.

It seems Windows really did go there too I guess. Shiny tools to better usher in the era of Star Trek and must have gadgets while furthering the cause of keeping people ignorant about the workings of the very tools they use every day.

Oh, and default "cloud" accounts if connected. WTF.

OK, rant off. At least I still have my OpenBSD. I think, first time EVAR, that I'll stick with a previous OS release for a while. OSX Mountain Lion doesn't look any better either, except for the Cougar jokes.

Good evening. It is truly an honour to be blessed with the opportunity to help Duck present this award. Hey, Gaga, why did you bring in a bratwu…

*Ahem* Thank you, Adom. Once in a lifetime comes along a true visionary of the screenshot arts. Somebody who channels Ansel Adams along side the Force. One who's sharp vision and natural framing ability rival that of temple architects, and who's timing must surely be guided by divine means.

WHO'S SCENE REIGNS SUPREME!?

*Sigh*. Tonight we're here to honour not one, but four visionaries with awards. Without further ado, the nominees are:

The recruiting team of most glorious TG Sith Empire division has a great tradition during the application process; when an application comes in from a potential Guardians, they are asked what stood out to them about The Guardians. Here are a few anonymous samples of the many great reasons people sought us out, compiled by Gyun:

"Your guild members and I were grouped in an instance and we wiped time and time again. They all stuck it out and we successfully completed it. Your website was very professional and well laid out."

"I was looking for a mature, goal oriented, friendly, and organized guild. To sum it up, I was looking for diversity. With TG, I find this perfect niche - diversity in play styles, organization, high activity level...with dedicated people and long standing friendships."

"What made the Guardians stand out was the glowing reference provided by my real life friend who is a member. I've also grouped with Guardians before to great success on planets completing quests and in Warzones."

"I was attracted to your guild after being informed of it by a friend. Your guild promotes the same morals and integrity I have tried to promote in every game I have played."

"I think the professionalism of your site and the few posts I read on the forums was enough for me to call off the search for a guild and apply. You guys seem laid back and that's what I'm looking for in a guild."

"One of the big things that stood out was that not only would you answer my questions but you were very prompt in doing so. And when you answered my questions you were very free with your information which helped."

"The fact that your forums are open really helped me get a picture of the people in your guild. You all seem like an a active, honest, and friendly group."

p.s. - Our Bounty Hunters are actively seeking whichever Guardian was wiping over and over. Will post pics of punishment.